"Hold That Thought"

 "Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe?" (John 16:31 KJV)

  "Awe gripped the people as they saw this majestic display of God's power. While everyone was marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, "Listen to me and remember what I say. The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies." But they didn't know what he meant. Its significance was hidden from them, so they couldn't understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about it." (Luke 9:43-46 NLT)

 Here is the scary part, sort of, because it is also the part that makes being chosen by God the most amazing thing of all! He knows us, better than we can know ourselves; even when we think that we have the ability to stand up for Him, to obey Him, and to be His follower, He knows what we are really made of! 

 Scary, but wonderful! You messed up, but He knew that you would; and He chose you to be His follower anyways! That might not enlighten those who think they are doing well and never messed up; but if any person thinks they don't sin, they are just fooling themselves, and cannot see their own failures. 

 There are two points that are brought up by Matthew Henry in this case: one is that of foreknowledge of the believer, as to those times they should have believed before, being on their conscience, as they should have believed sooner. The second is about the event when their faith is tested, and will you revert back to questioning what you believe, due to your doubt of the sincerity of your belief. 

 That is really not hard to be the case in just about every believer, at one time or another. We think we can withstand being judged or rejected by others for our beliefs, until that particular moment when it appears too critical or threatening to our personal life, business, or desires. Then we shrink back and just pretend to be neutral on any particular point or subject, even if someone might be putting down the Lord! 

 We all know what happened to the disciples, even though they personally walked with Jesus, saw all of the things He did, and felt the love that He had for them; yet they turned their backs on Him, when it should have mattered the most... 

"Who has believed our message? To whom has the LORD revealed his powerful arm? My servant grew up in the LORD'S presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected - a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for sins. He was beaten so we could be made whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all." (Isaiah 53:1-6 NLT)